Spirit Resumes Flying to Akron-Canton Airport

Spirit Airlines has resumed serving the Akron-Canton Airport flying to and from Orlando three days a week.

The carrier’s first flight to CAK was on June 11. Through July 1 Spirit will fly between Akron-Canton and Orlando on Thursday, Friday and Sunday using Airbus 319 equipment.

Spirit’s website shows daily service between CAK and Orlando resuming July 1.

Originally, Spirit had planned to resume serving CAK on July 1 after last flying to the airport on April 6.

The low-cost carrier also has had seasonal service between Akron-Canton and Tampa and Fort Myers.

Those flights typically operate between late fall and spring and do not operate daily.

During the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic in April a spokesman for Spirit said the carrier would determine service levels on an airport-by-airport basis but hoped to return to normal capacity as soon as possible.

It has since been reinstating most service to Cleveland Hopkins Airport that was suspended during the pandemic and hopes to be at its pre-pandemic service level to Hopkins by July 1.

Hopkins will also be receiving new service that didn’t exist before the pandemic. Spirit has said it will launch a new route next month between Cleveland and Newark Liberty International Airport, thus providing competition with United Airlines.

On Friday JetBlue said it would launch a new route on Oct. 1 between Cleveland and Fort Myers, a route already flown by Spirit, Frontier, United and Southwest airlines.

However, Frontier is the only carrier that operates the Cleveland-Fort Myers route all year.

JetBlue, which currently flies between Cleveland and Boston, had service from Hopkins to Fort Lauderdale before the pandemic began. It has not said when or if that route will be reinstated.

The carrier plans to operate its Cleveland-Fort Myers flights with Airbus 320 aircraft featuring free Internet access and live DirectTV service in addition to complimentary beverages and snacks.

In the meantime, air service at Akron-Canton continues to have lag well behind its pre-pandemic levels with one flight a day to Chicago (O’Hare), Philadelphia and Charlotte.

In an unrelated development, the airport’s president, Ren Camacho, will speak on June 25 at the Akron Roundtable about the challenges the airport faces in getting back air service lost during the pandemic.

The virtual forum is free and the first in a series of online events that the Akron Roundtable is sponsoring.

Go to akronroundtable.org for information on how to participate in the virtual forum.

Tags: airline service, airline service in Northeast Ohio, Akron-Canton Airport, Northeast Ohio air service, Spirit Airlines